Electronic pop from Eritrea

Wow... Yet another long wait between posts. My apologies...

Anyway, here goes...

While it is easy for the average World Music listener to complain about Asian and African countries' use of electronics on the grounds that it undermines the 'authenticity' of the music, or that it's "too western", or (in some cases quite legitimately) too cheesy, I don't think its sane to dismiss this very loose category of music wholesale--especially given its massive quantity!

One example of one facet of this music that has broken through somewhat is Omar Souleyman whose reissue disc (thanks to Sublime Frequencies) employs cloying neon-toned synths, monotonous drum machines, intense vocals.

There are numerous others though from around the world which employ (mostly low-budget) electronic sounds in a way that is quite intriguing. Perhaps the synth programming isn't overly sophisticated, perhaps the instruments are used as substitutes for other acoustic (read: more 'authentic') instruments, yet somehow there is something quite distinct about the somewhat cold and stitled electronic versions.

Eritrea is a country with a really strong legacy of excellent and distinct music, including luminaries such as Tsehaytu Beraki (who recently recorded an excellent trad album for Dutch label Terp).

Conveniently the insistent and instantly recognizable Eritrean ch-boom, ch-boom 6/8 beat, which, roughly two-thirds of the way through the song breaks down into a faster 3/4 cheh-cheh, cheh-cheh makes excellent drum-machine fodder. Many Eritrean popular artists have creatively adapted the hallmark rhythms and sounds to more electronic-driven music.

Elsa Kidane's song "Alemna" even feeds the ornamented vocals through the Autotune effect (employed most famously by Cher on "Believe") and actually pulls it off (to my ears). Meanwhile, some of the work of older artist Yemane "Barya" Gebremichael has the sound of classic 1970's/80's drum machines all over it alongside smooth synth pads. His classic style seems to marry dreamy low-fi 1980's R&B stylings to an Eritrean sonic palette. In many cases he opts to eschew the aforementioned beat, in favour of straight 4/4. Torontonian-Eritrean artist Daniel Nebiat takes a utilitarian route with his use of electronics in his backup band, but even while the drum machine seems to present simply to replicate regular drums, the stiff uniformity of the sounds really carries his music well and provides a consistent base for his vocals and krar.

There are several other examples which I've collected here. Hopefully this makes a case for the value of said style, at least within the context of Eritrean music. Enjoy!

Elsa Kidane
Bello
Alemna

Yemane Barya
Sidet
Zeywegh Meryet

Helen Meles
Fere Fere

Idrisay
Telhey

Walta
Unknown Title

W. Sheqa
Unknown Title

(Thanks to www.eriband.com for these sounds)
Other links (not necessarily exclusively in this style, you may need to poke around a bit on these sites to hear more in this style)
http://erietinet.podomatic.com
http://www.erimp3.com/
http://winnipeg.podomatic.com/
http://www.erimelody.com/

And for Toronto residents... remember that you can hear live Ethiopian and Eritrean music on weekends at Habesha Club at Bloor and Ossington (South-East Side)!